This section introduces aspects that may be helpful in facilitating a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Several technical terms and/or phrases will be used throughout this application and merit a brief explanation.
A traditional server or server is any type of computer or device that often links other computers or electronic devices together.
A blade server is a server of reduced size and with reduced power consumption. Many components of a traditional server are removed to create the space saving and reduced power consumption of a blade server. A blade enclosure (chassis) holds multiple blade servers and up to one hundred twenty-eight (128) servers can be held on a single server rack. The blade enclosure allows computing services to be shared among multiple blade servers. Blade servers that utilize a switch located within the chassis (e.g. built in switch or a switch on a separate board) to provide network connectivity to the blades are expensive.
A switch is a computer device that connects network segments. A switch usually can process and route data.
PCIe is a standard for computer expansion cards. It is used in server applications to link motherboard-mounted peripherals. The PCIe utilizes point-to-point serial links instead of a shared parallel bus architecture.
ASIC is an integrated circuit (IC) that has a specific use instead of multi-purpose uses. ASICs may include processors and memory blocks.
CXP is a connector system with twelve (12) ten 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) links suitable for one hundred (100) Gbit Ethernet or three (3) forty (40) Gbit Ethernets or twelve (12) ten (10) Gbit Ethernets.
Ethernet defines wiring and signaling standards for the physical layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and addressing format and Media Access Control (MAC) at the data link layer.
A central processing unit (CPU) is sometimes simply referred to as a processor. It is located in a computer system and is responsible for carrying out the instructions contained in a computer program.
A traditional server rack is typically a standardized enclosure for mounting traditional servers and permits storage of multiple servers in a single rack. A U-slot is a single rack unit which is traditionally 1.75 inches in height and accommodates nineteen (19) inch wide servers. In a typical 42U rack, almost five percent (5%) of the rack space is used for network switches (i.e. 2/42 of rack space is used due to the existence of a top of rack switch and a redundant switch). High speed switches for use as top of rack switches and redundant switches are relatively expensive equipment.
A data center network houses multiple server racks. Data centers have three main problems: space, power and cooling. Most existing data center networks use traditional servers because of the cost effectiveness when compared to the use of blade servers.
Hence, there is a need for a device and method that efficiently, reliably and affordably permits a switch to be placed on a PCIe card for use in traditional servers to conserve space in a data center network.